Rick Hendrick’s HMS star Kyle Larson has his priorities straight for the Homestead Miami race

Kyle Larson is focused on earning his spot in the Championship 4 as NASCAR heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend.

The Henrick Motorsports driver is currently 35 points above the playoff cutline, sitting in second place overall. He has more wins (six) than any other driver this season and an average finish of 14. Larson is hoping to keep it steady and finish strong.

"Hoping to just see the checkered flag and have a good result," Larson said via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

The next race in the Round of 8 is the Straight Talk Wireless 400 in Florida this Sunday, October 27.

Larson has a good track record at Homestead-Miami. The 32-year-old last won the playoff race at the 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval track in 2022. He averages a 13th-place finish in over 10 starts and leads all active drivers with 625 laps led at the track.

Last year, Larson led the most laps (96) in the playoff race at Homestead and won the first stage. However, he ended up finishing 34th due to an accident while entering the pit road.

The qualifying order for the eight playoff drivers is now split into two groups of four. They will qualify at the end. The top five in each group advance to the second round. A rule change implemented in June means the second-fastest driver is no longer guaranteed a front-row start. A driver with the sixth-fastest time could potentially secure a front-row position.

Up till now, only Joey Logano has earned a spot in the Championship 4, courtesy of his win last weekend at Las Vegas.

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Tony Stewart discusses Kyle Larson's talent and comparison to other drivers

Tony Stewart recently talked about Kyle Larson's performance in different racing formats. Back in August, the No. 5 Chevrolet driver had said that he is "better than him (Max Verstappen) as an all-around driver."

In the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Stewart complimented Larson and said that he, like some other drivers can quickly adapt to any race car.

"I’m a huge Kyle Larson fan. Love what he does in a sprint car. You can take him and drop him in any racecar and he’s gonna be up to speed pretty quick. But I also remember taking Juan Montoya to Eldora Speedway putting him in a dirt late model that he’d never even seen before, he’d never raced on dirt before. His third lap on the racetrack he was third on the board," Stewart said.

Harvick added that F1 driver Max Verstappen could do well in NASCAR too.